Glenn Beck's History Of Using The Holocaust To Advance His Political Agenda

Glenn Beck has repeatedly been criticized for his wildly inappropriate use of Holocaust and Nazi imagery to attack his opponents.

Beck Has Been Criticized For His Use Of Holocaust And Nazi Imagery

Beck's Rhetoric Prompted 400 Rabbis To Urge Fox News To Sanction Beck. Jewish Funds for Justice ran an open letter in The Wall Street Journal calling on Rupert Murdoch to "sanction Glenn Beck" for his repeated use of Holocaust and Nazi imagery. The letter was signed by 400 rabbis. From the letter:

We were...deeply offended by Roger Ailes' recent statement attributing the outrage over Glenn Beck's use of Holocaust and Nazi images to "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."

[...]

We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News. It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year-old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps. It is not appropriate to call executives of another news agency "Nazis." And it is not appropriate to make literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom you disagree.

It is because this issue has a profound impact on each of us, our families and our communities that we are calling on Fox News to meet the standard it has set for itself: "to exercise the ultimate sensitivity when referencing the Holocaust."

We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and that Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air. [The Wall Street Journal, 1/27/11, via The Washington Post]

Prominent Jewish Leaders And Holocaust Survivors Condemned Beck's "Monstrous" Use Of The Holocaust To Attack George Soros. After Beck smeared philanthropist George Soros by suggesting he helped "send the Jews" to "death camps" during the Holocaust, he was condemned by the ADL's Abe Foxman and other prominent Jewish leaders and Holocaust survivors. Jewish Week reported:

The ADL's Abe Foxman is also a child survivor who lived only because his parents turned him over to his Catholic nanny.

"Look, I spit on Jews when I was six years old," Foxman told me. "Does that make me an anti-Semite?"

The issue of the Shoah "is so sensitive that I'm not even sure Holocaust survivors themselves are willing to make such judgments," Foxman went on "For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say, there's a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, that's horrific. It's totally off limits and over the top."

Beck's comments "were either out of total ignorance or total insensitivity," he said.

Elan Steinberg, vice president of the The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, called the Beck accusations "monstrous; you don't make such accusations without proof, and I have seen no such proof."

Beck's charges, he said, "go to the heart of the instrumentalization and trivialization of the Holocaust."

Simon Greer, president of the Jewish Funds for Justice, met with Fox News executives in July to discuss Beck's "constant and often inappropriate invocation of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany on the air."

Greer and Rabbi Steve Gutow of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) received a handwritten note from Beck saying "Please know that I understand the sensitivity and sacred nature of this dark chapter in Human History. Thank you for your candor and helpful thoughts."

Yesterday's on-air comments by Beck "made a mockery of their professed understanding," Greer said in a statement. "In an effort to demonize a political opponent, Beck and Fox News scurrilously attacked George Soros, a prominent Jewish philanthropist and Holocaust survivor. No one who truly understands 'the sensitivity and sacred nature' of the Holocaust would deliberately and grotesquely mis-characterize the experience of a 13 year old Jew in Nazi-occupied Hungary whose father hid him with a non-Jewish family to keep him alive."

Interfaith Alliance President Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy said Beck's "use of the Holocaust to discredit George Soros is beyond repugnant. The Holocaust is one of history's most tragic events and those who survived it are owed our enduring respect."[The Jewish Week, 11/11/10]

Jewish Funds For Justice CEO Criticized Beck's History Of "Recklessly Invoking Nazi Germany And The Holocaust In Order To Advance His Political Agenda." After Beck attacked a Washington Post op-ed by Jewish Funds for Justice CEO Simon by saying that Greer's call to "put the common good first" eventually "leads to death camps," Greer responded by highlighting Beck's history of "recklessly invoking Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in order to advance his political agenda."

From a May 28, 2010 statement Greer gave to Media Matters:

This morning, on his nationally syndicated radio program, Tea Party hero Glenn Beck lambasted me for writing, in a Washington Post op-ed, that "to put God first is to put humankind first, and to put humankind first is to put the common good first." Beck responded by claiming that "this is exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany" and that I, "a Jew, of all people, should know that."

Glenn Beck has a history recklessly invoking Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in order to advance his political agenda. But never before has Beck accused Jews - including survivors of the Holocaust and their children and grandchildren - of paving the way for fascism. Through his comments, Beck has demonstrated that he has no idea what leads to fascism. Jews and others, who were victims of the Holocaust, do not have the luxury of his ignorance.

Beck's reflexive hatred for government is rejected by Americans of all backgrounds, who have seen the powerful role government can play in providing us with greater freedom, security, and opportunity. I am proud of the work we do at Jewish Funds for Justice, where our belief that we are all made in the image of the divine compels us to petition private enterprise, charities, and yes, the government, to do their part to ensure our shared divinity. [Media Matters, 5/28/10]

ADL Rebuked Beck For His "Deeply Offensive" Comparisons Of Al Gore To Nazi Propagandist Joseph Goebbels. From a May, 2007, press release from the Anti-Defamation League:

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today denounced remarks by radio personality Glenn Beck where he compared efforts to raise awareness about global warming to Hitler's plans to exterminate Jews during the Holocaust, saying his remarks are part of "a troubling epidemic on the airwaves, where comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust are becoming all-too facile."

On the April 30 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Beck said: "Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world."

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:

Glenn Beck's linkage of Hitler's plan to round up and exterminate Jews with Al Gore's efforts to raise awareness of global warming is outrageous, insensitive and deeply offensive. Unfortunately, his remarks are just the latest example of a troubling epidemic on the airwaves, where comparisons to Hitler and the Holocaust are becoming all-too facile.

It has become almost commonplace for talk-show pundits to use comparisons to the Holocaust and Nazi imagery to attack people whose views they disagree with, whether the issue is global warming or immigration, as we witnessed when CNN's Lou Dobbs recently suggested on his program that immigrant rights groups use tactics similar to those of Nazi propagandists.

The six million Jewish victims and millions of other victims of Hitler deserve a measure of respect. Their deaths should not be used for political points or sloganeering. Every time a radio or television personality takes that unique event in history and twists it for their own political agenda, it cheapens the public debate and distorts and trivializes the Holocaust. [ADL, 5/2/07]

Beck Regularly Invokes Nazis, Hitler, And The Holocaust To Attack His Political Opponents

Beck: Youth Camp Attacked In Norway "Sounds A Little Like The Hitler Youth." From Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: So, Saturday, I was following the news of the shooting in Norway and the explosion in Norway, which happened, what, on Friday?

GRAY: Yeah. The explosion was - and then we left the air, and then he went to the camp.

BECK: Yeah. Well, when we heard the explosion everybody was willing to say, it's Muslim extremists; it's Muslim extremists. I don't think we made a comment on it, because we didn't know other than there was a bombing that happened. And as the thing started to unfold, and then there was a shooting at a political camp -- which sounds a little like the Hitler youth, or whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing.

But anyway, so there's this political camp, and some crazy man goes and starts shooting kids. I get up Saturday morning, and I write to Scott Baker at The Blaze and I said, I haven't seen this yet anywhere, and I can tell you exactly what's going on. Somebody just needs to follow the story. And what is going on is exactly what I said would happen. I warned that this would happen last fall. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 7/25/11]

Beck Invoked "First They Came For The Jews" Poem To Respond To Ad Boycotts. From Fox News' Glenn Beck:

BECK: Hello, America. The boycotts are gathering steam. To date, I believe there is at least one Internet report that we have lost 7,832,000 sponsors. And yet through the charitable kindness of this network, we are still here.

You know what? The fact is I haven't felt this good and positive in a long time. Why? Because the boycott attempts are the most transparent Astroturf attacks I have ever seen or ever heard of.

Who is it that currently is launching these efforts against me and this show? Well, let's see. Radical union organizer Andy Stern. Say hi to the people, Andy. Hi, Andy. There he is. He is the advisor to the president, the most frequent visitor to the White House and the "workers of the world unite" anti-capitalist guy. Him - Andy Stern.

Then there is the group that Van Jones founded whose boycott effort now - can we bring up the clock? There it is. It's in its 251st day at a boycott. There it is. Former advisor to the president - I'm going to put here for radical 1960s kind of guy. And this is a current communist.

Then, there is the current spiritual and policy advisor to the president, Jim Wallis. Jim is a Marxist for Jesus. This is such a blatant - oh, did I - also an advisor. Such a blatantly Astroturf from-the-top- down attack that the boycott form letters from SEIU and Van Jones' group. They are actually the same. It's weird, isn't it?

Is it a coincidence that all of the above are or were advisors to the president? By the way, he was an advisor to the president and now he's with George Soros' group. Is it possible that maybe, by pointing out every night that there are radicals, Marxists and communists in the White House, maybe it struck a nerve?

Has someone decided that they must destroy my career and silence me because we've stumbled on to something? Here's the gist. There is another attack we found out moments ago from the president of the AFL-CIO. Don't have a picture of him because this just came in.

AFL-CIO - unions. Don't have an advisor to the president - union. Richard Trumka - this from prepared remarks he's going to give tonight at the Harvard Club. Quote, "So now, a lot of Americans are angry and we should be angry. And we have just seen throughout history there are plenty of purveyors of hate and division looking for profit from our hurt and our anger."

He goes on to say, "We're working to counter the Glenn Beck effect and turn our anger into action for real change."

Did you see that? You - oh, I love these union guys. They're the best. And in all of the attacks on me, which nearly always involve angry, hateful rhetoric or, you know - he's crazy - in all of these we have seen not one has ever mentioned the White House let him go. And now, he's working for George Soros. But also, never mention he's a communist.

Jim Wallis, not one - nobody has ever mentioned - no, no, Glenn Beck has got it wrong. He's not a Marxist. Andy Stern, not a radical 1960s guy from SDS. Never mentioned, that one.

See, wouldn't it be easy to disprove these things, you know, from rantings of a crazy man if they were untrue? I think so. Be a lot easier than coordinating from the Oval Office or from the White House, or maybe he doesn't know. I'm sure that's very, very possible.

Would it be easier just to say, "No, that's not true and here is the evidence" than coordinating an attack? It would sure be cheaper. They can't do that because the facts reveal otherwise - their own words. I never said they said things. I played them on tape.

Truth is not hateful rhetoric. Jim Wallis, Andy Stern, Van Jones - none of them could come on this show and disavow redistribution of wealth or embrace the American free market principles that built this country.

They can't come on the show and accept that charity comes from individuals or church groups, not the government. Is it possible, then, that the White House has absolutely no knowledge, no involvement in these boycotts whatsoever?

Has there ever been a case in American history outside of the hard core radical progressive Woodrow Wilson where an American president and administration tried to destroy the livelihood of a private citizen with whom they disagree? Can't think of any.

Much has been made over the years and rightly so of Richard Nixon's enemies list. It's been chronicled over and over again by the mainstream media. But isn't this the same thing? Where is the media?

Do the rest of you in this business think it's going to stop with me? Really? Once they get me, what happens to you? Is there absolutely no chance whatsoever that you might be a target at some point in the future?

What is that poem, "First they came for the Jews and I stayed silent"? Next, I'll show you the very latest attacks on me. These are actually kind of funny. I'll show you how they are really going for the jugular now. Next. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 04/07/10, transcript via Nexis]

Beck Compared Fox News To Jews During Holocaust: "First They Came For The Jews." From The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: When they're done with Fox, and you decide to speak out on something. The old, "first they came for the Jews, and I wasn't Jewish." When you have a question, and you believe that something should be asked, they're a -- totally fine with you right now; they have no problem with you.

When they're done with Fox and talk radio, do you really think they're going to leave you alone if you want to ask a tough question? Do you really think that a man who has never had to stand against tough questions and has as much power as he does -- do you really believe after he takes out the number one news network, do you really think that this man is then not going to turn on you? That you and your little organization is going to cause him any hesitation at all not to take you out?

If you believe that, you should open up a history book, because you've missed the point of many brutal dictators. You missed the point on how they always start. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 10/13/09]

Beck Discussing National Endowment For The Arts' Conference Call With Artists: "You Should Look Up The Name Goebbels." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: Just reading a police report I want to get to here in just a second. First let me start here, and this is going to be a weird way to get here, but you'll understand why in a second. I told you about the controversial August conference call where the then-National Endowment for the Arts communications director Yosi Sargent asked artists to advocate for the administration through their art. You remember this audio, it was brought to us by BigHollywood.com.

[START AUDIO CLIP]

YOSI SERGEANT: I would encourage you to pick something. Whether it's health care, education, the environment, you know. There's four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.

[END AUDIO CLIP]

BECK: Okay, they later went on the phone call to say 'we're having a hard time talking to you because we don't know how legally what language we can use.' I dunno, why don't we stick to the truth? And if it's against the law, maybe we shouldn't be saying it? Advocating through art is known as "propaganda." Hmm, you should look up the name Goebbels. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 11/03/09]

Beck On Obama's "Civilian National Security Force": "This Is What Hitler Did With The SS." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: I'm finding this -- this is the hardest part to connect to. Because this is -- I mean, look, you know, David [Bellavia, former Army staff sergeant], what you just said is, you said, 'I'm not comparing' -- but you are. I mean, this is what Hitler did with the SS. He had his own people. He had the brownshirts and then the SS. This is what Saddam Hussein -- so -- but you are comparing that. And I -- I mean, I think America would have a really hard time getting their arms around that. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 08/27/09]

Beck Said "The Germans" During Hitler's Rise "Were An Awful Lot Like We Are Now." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: I have to tell you, when I heard this story this afternoon, I was sitting in my office and I look up at the TV and I saw this, and I thought 'oh geez.' I have been to the Holocaust Museum with my family in Washington, D.C. Beck, obviously my last name is German, my family came over in the 1800s but I've always been fascinated with the one question: Did the Germans know?

When I sobered up and started doing my own homework, and trying to decide what I really believed in, I went and I - the scariest book I ever bought was Mein Kampf - and I went and I bought it and I read it because I wanted to answer that question. And the answer was: Yes, they knew. I think the Germans however were an awful lot like we are now, we're kind of living in a denial like 'no, no that can't really be happening,' no that - really you don't want to believe some things, but you have to. You have to actually think about them. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 06/10/09]

Beck Compared Auto Bailouts To The Actions Of German Companies "In The Early Days Of Adolf Hitler." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: I am not saying that Barack Obama is a fascist, I'm not saying the Democrats are a fascist. I'm saying the government, under Bush and under Obama and under all of the presidents that we've seen -- or at least most of the presidents who we've seen for quite some time - are slowly but surely moving us away from our republic and into a system of fascism. Yes or no?

SHELDON RICHMAN (FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION): I'm agreeing with you, I'm saying we've been on that road a very long time. We've been on that road for ages, even into the 19th century. Sometimes we take two steps forward, and one back, sometimes we take one step forward, two steps back. We've been on that road, and I agree with what you're saying. The GM and the AIG situations are more like fascism than socialism. But I would add this one caveat, and I don't approve of the policies, but I would add this one caveat, these companies came to the government for help. They never should have gotten it, but -

BECK: If I'm not mistaken, if I'm not mistaken, in the early days of Adolph Hitler, they were very happy to line up for help there as well. I mean, the companies were like "hey, wait a minute, we can get, we can get out of trouble here, they can help, etc. etc." You line up some times. You never want to give your rights away or your freedoms away for security. Our founders talked about this. We're giving our freedoms away: GM, AIG, any of these banks, CitiGroup, they're all giving their freedom away for security. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 04/01/09]

BECK (voice-over): We all know the world is on fire, and plenty of firemen are showing up to try to save the day.

Most experts say Ben Bernanke is the best person to solve this economic crisis because he studied the Great Depression.

ANNOUNCER: Millions of unemployed besieged the government for relief. The United States faced one of the blackest periods in its history.

BECK: Tomorrow, people who have not only studied the depression but fascism -- but the firefighters need (ph) a plan. Is this where we're headed? Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

Beck Has Attacked Progressive Organizations As "Brownshirts." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: You know, I have to tell you something, you know, ACORN -- we all think we know what ACORN is. But there is so much more to this story.

Tomorrow, America, we're going to introduce you to a couple of people that I don't think anybody has really introduced to you to before. They're part of the "ACORN 8." We tried to get all eight in, but because of scheduling and everything else we couldn't -- well, we got a couple of them in.

They're going to lay out the story for you. They were -- they were on the board at ACORN. They are all African-Americans and they say this is corrupt all the way start to finish. Wait until you hear the people who were there, and are part -- they want nothing to do with ACORN, but are speaking out.

Can you tell me this? Here is something, Kevin, that I don't see anybody really talking about is the link between ACORN and SEIU. This is the service union.

These are the people -- these are the people that ACORN was protesting, driving people out to the AIG people. These are the "brown shirts." Then the service workers union, or the SEIU, these are the people that were protesting in front of AIG. They're henchmen. Are they tied together? [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 05/07/09, accessed via Nexis]

Beck Warned Of Impending "National Socialism." From The O'Reilly Factor:

LAURA INGRAHAM (host): And in the "at your Beck and call" segment tonight, we continue our coverage of the stimulus package. One small step towards fixing the economy or one giant leap towards socialism in the United States?

Joining us now from our New York studio, FOX News anchor Glenn Beck.

Glenn, I was going to wear my Soviet flag for you today because I lived in the Soviet Union.

GLENN BECK: Why would you say that we're on the road to socialism? That's outrageous fear mongering...

INGRAHAM: Yeah, well, I know it's not really with the spirit of the Globama, but you know, tell us which five year plan is this more like, the first one in 1928 or the last one in 1991, I think, or 1995?

BECK: Let me tell you something. I think that we are in deep, deep trouble on several fronts. Not only is socialism being shoved down our throats, and it is being done -- I actually heard -- I don't remember which secretary it was today, not the one sitting right outside of his office saying we don't have time to think and discuss this. I'm like really? I think maybe we should.

But not only do we have socialism being jammed down our throats, we now have the, you know, the USS Cole being -- the charges being dropped on the planner on that.

But then we also have GE coming to the table and being named -- Jeffrey Immelt being named one of the financial advisors of Barack Obama today. A lot of people would say wait a minute, didn't they drop their stock 68 percent?

INGRAHAM: Yeah.

BECK: But what's worse, Laura.

INGRAHAM: Yeah.

BECK: .as you know.

INGRAHAM: Go ahead.

BECK: .they own everything. They've got MSNBC, NBC, CNBC.

INGRAHAM: That's nothing, but that's OK.

BECK: You know, they're - you're controlling an awful lot of the news and financial information and entertainment and Universal. You have also, here's another thing I really love. You also have aircraft jet engines. You have financial.

INGRAHAM: Right.

BECK: You make medical equipment. We are really truly stepping beyond socialism. And we're starting to look at fascism. We are putting business and government together.

INGRAHAM: All right, well, you're throwing a lot around. Whoa, yeah, Glenn, you're throwing a lot of terms around. And I'm going to play devil's advocate, OK? Because this is fair and balanced.

Now moving from socialism to communism. That's a pretty big leap.

BECK: Sure.

INGRAHAM: Socialism, obviously the economic system; communism, the political system. How are we right now moving toward state ownership of all, for instance, heavy industry? I mean, all heavy industry.

BECK: OK, let me just explain what happened in Nazi Germany. Remember, it was national socialism. We're talking now about nationalizing the banks. And we're also putting in socialized programs. National socialism.

At first in Nazi Germany, everybody was so panicked, they were so freaked. Remember, don't take any time to think about it, we just got to do, do, do. At first, all the big companies and the big capitalists in Germany said, oh, thank goodness there's a savior. OK, great we'll do that, yes.

It didn't take too long before, like here in America now Goldman Sachs, they started to see the writing on the wall and went, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys are getting out of control here. What are you guys doing? And they couldn't get out of it fast enough.

Unfortunately for those in Germany, you could never go back. I don't know if this is the system that we're headed towards or not, where they're not going to let you out. But let me tell you something, I don't want to play this game. This is becoming extraordinarily dangerous.

INGRAHAM: Now remember what Mark said that democracy is the road to socialism. Ultimately, the Democratic system will collapse into socialism. So that's clearly what he was hoping for.

Beck Compared Gore To Goebbels, Said, "The Government And Its Friends Are Indoctrinating Our Children For The Control Of Their Minds." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: But here is the one thing: Last night, I told you that we were on the road to socialism, some comedy, you know, coming your way. Well, tonight - - oh, boy, this might not go well. When I finish this story, some may believe we're on the road to the Hitler Youth. Here is the latest example and buckle up because if you thought last night was bumpy -- well, this one is going to be a rollercoaster ride.

One of my radio listeners gave me this story just a couple of days ago. I want to play it on a minute. You hear the voice of Al Gore -- he is speaking to a bunch of teens and pre-teens at a youth conference on global warming, or as he is calling it now, climate change.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

AL GORE, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: There are some things about our world that you know that older people don't know.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BECK: Yes. I'm going to play more of this tape for you in a minute and introduce you to the 12-year-old who was there recording it because her dad told her to. Her dad will be with us, too.

But what is the point of all this? Well, as I see it, as a father of four, you are probably a little like me. You are working hard to raise your kids right, and it seems like everything is stacked against you. In many cases, both you and your spouse are working and some are working two jobs.

You get home and you're tired. You have been dealing with a screaming boss all day, an economy that's falling apart and everybody is freaking out wondering if they're even going to have a job next week and you got a government that is out of control. You look at on TV and you're like, "What the hell are they doing now?"

And you're doing it all without any help. In fact, I think you are doing it against everything that's been set up to make your life oh, so easy. And now, you got the former vice president of the United States and a Nobel Prize winner looking your kid in the eye telling them, "You know what? You know things that your dad and mom don't."

Well, try to beat that, mom and dad. What do you know? I mean, you tell me, what a 12-year-old knows instinctively that an adult doesn't -- I mean, except being able to play "Guitar Hero." And if it is true, then why don't we appoint a 12-year-old to lead the treasury? I mean, they know things instinctively. Yes, we didn't need Tim Geithner. Or how about -- how about we appoint a 12-year-old as the new climate czar?

Why is it that our Constitution says that the president has to be 35? I'm sure he's trapped in some of that old thinking. Shouldn't we just make sure that at least the vice president is 13?

The government and its friends are indoctrinating our children for control of their minds, your freedom, and our choice and our future. It must stop, because history -- when properly taught -- has already shown us where it leads.

This is what Nazi Joseph Goebbels said about the Hitler Youth: "If such an art of active mass influence through propaganda is joined with a long-term systematic education of our nation and if both are conducted in a unified and precise way, the relationship between the leadership and the nation will always remain close."

Well, what's next? If mom and dad decide to keep the temperature above 72, should our "Gore Youth" report mom and dad? Should they also report spankings and groundings every time daddy comes home and watches that evil FOX News?

Environmentalists, along with everybody else, looking to promote an agenda understand what the drug dealer understands instinctively, and he's not 12, and that's this: Get kids hooked when they're young and you will have a customer for life. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 02/05/09, via Nexis]

Beck: Holocaust Survivor's Story Of How Nazis Drove A Wedge Between Students And Parents Sounds Like U.N. and Gore. From Glenn Beck:

BECK: Kitty, hang on, because I'm going to get back to your story.

But let me -- let me go to you, Pastor, have you seen -- and, Kitty, I'm going to ask you this, too. Have you seen any of this?

And I want to make this clear. This does not mean that this ends up in rounding people up in concentration camps or anything else. The idea -- at least for me, when I hear "never forget," it's not to never forget the 8 million that died, you know, Jews, plus. It's to never ever forget, to honor them by making sure it never happens again anywhere on earth.

That's why Rwanda, to me, was a nightmare. We promised not to forget. It happened anyway.

Are you seeing anything here that is similar? First to you.

PASTOR LAURENCE WHITE, OUR SAVIOR LUTHERAN CHURCH: I think, Glenn, whenever the state co-opts the church or seeks to diminish the influence and relevance of a church in a culture and is successful in that, it happens by default, because the church has failed to be what the church is.

Martin Niemoller whom you referred to in your introduction, after the war, as Germans are searching their consciences and trying to figure out how this could have happened in this nation with a Christian heritage stretching back a thousand years or more, Martin Niemoller points out it wasn't Hitler or Himmler or Goering or Goebbels, but it was us, the people of God and Christ. Who else would have known? Who else had a standard by which they could have understood what was happening in their society? And we didn't stop them.

BECK: Did your parents know?

WERTHMANN: My parents immediately objected, because my parents were very good Christian people. And then I would come from the end of Sunday of all the fun we had, the rest of the Sunday we had sports. We got all the equipment free, and we had so much fun. And we were told that we had rights. And we should, we had freedom. Not to listen to our parents.

So, when I would go home, after all the fun we had on Sunday, and also, we were told by the teacher if our parents would not send us on Sunday, the first time, they would get a stiff letter of warning. The second time, they would be fined about $300. And the third time, they would be put in jail.

So we dutifully attended, but we were weaned away from our parents. They drove a wedge between us and the parents.

BECK: You know, I don't know about anybody else, but I -- in the audience, this to me doesn't sound like stuff necessarily that I've heard from Obama. This is stuff that I've heard from the U.N. This is the kind of stuff that we have heard from -- does anybody -- is anybody with me on that one? Yes, Al Gore and the -- yes. Exactly right. OK. Back in just a second. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 09/24/10, via Nexis]

BECK: Hello, America. Tonight, I ask you to stay with the program. This is not a sound byte program tonight, although it will be taken out of context and it will be used and it will be called fearmongering. What I call this is question with boldness, questions that need answers. We must have answers.

And I am only following the directions of the president of the United States. He told us how to find out what he really believes and that is exactly what we're going to do. In a couple of minutes, we're going to talk about health care, the views of Obama's czars and his close advisors, and why it's important to look there. It's important to know where they stand.

But first, I want to start someplace to show you the beginnings of and the history of eugenics, which means basically creating a master race by discouraging reproduction with people with genetic defects and other "undesirable traits."

Now, I know right now the people who are writing their blogs in the basement are saying, "Oh, my gosh, we got him now, Glenn is saying eugenics is coming."

No, I'm not. I'm not saying anything like that at all. Eugenics are not coming. Eugenics have been wildly discredited by the Nazis, and only truly evil people would go down that road. But it did happen, and it's important that we look at that time period, because there is a lot we can learn from the past mistakes that led to that point.

Please watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECK (voice-over): Eugenics is not an idea, and it did not start with the Nazis but with American and British socialists and progressives who thought that through measures like prohibition and later, birth control, they could cure the ills of modern society, such as more public hygiene, rising population among lower classes, and urban crowding. Indiana passed the first sterilization law in 1907 for confirmed criminals, idiots, embezzles and rapists. And in the next 20 years, 29 other states followed suit, along with Canada and most of Europe.

Eugenics infected the mind-set of intellectuals such as the leader of the new liberalism movement of the early 20th century, Herbert Croly. He wrote a book in 1909 called "The Promise of American Life," in which he declared that the state must, quote, "interfere on behalf of the really fittest."

Eugenics was popular thought for President Woodrow Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and their advisors. In 1912, a year before he was president, New Jersey's governor, Woodrow Wilson, created a board of examiners of feeble- minded, epileptics and other defectives. Under it, the state could determine, quote, "when procreation is inadvisable like for criminals, prisoners, poor kids and the ill-defined, other defectives," end quote.

Roosevelt's close advisor, Charles Van Hise said, quote, "He who thinks of himself not primarily, but of his race, and of its future, is the new patriot," end quote. Former President Roosevelt later endorsed Madison Grant's passing of "The Great Race," a book that Hitler once referred to as his Bible.

What most history textbooks seemed to ignore is that before the Nazis took power, Germans lagged behind Americans and Europeans in eugenics. But World War I and the great flu pandemic basically turned doctors into social planners, and Hitler and the Nazis took the logic of public health to totalitarian extremes. They made the central policy goal affecting employment, marriage, medicine and more. The same year, Hitler joined the Nazi party in 1920, the Nazis rounded up hundreds of thousands of disabled, elderly and mentally ill, and exterminated them, as quote, "useless bread gobblers" or "life unworthy of life," end quote.

Back to America, eugenics was beings effectively written into the Constitution. In the Buck versus Bell case in 1927, progressive lawyers stood on the flimsy ground of a Massachusetts vaccination law to keep Carrie Buck from reproducing. We know now she wasn't retarded. But to add insult to injury, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes infamously wrote, quote, "Three generations of imbeciles are enough," end quote.

Seven years later, Hitler wrote to the president of the American Eugenics Society to ask for a copy of his famous case for sterilization, which called for forced sterilization of some 10 million Americans. During that year, the Nazis sterilized over 50,000 "unfit" Germans, which caused an American eugenicist to complain, quote, "The Germans are beating us at our own game."

The Nazi eugenic idea involved naturally into the eventual Holocaust and the deaths of 6 million Jews, as well as millions of other innocent people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BECK: America, there is so much anger and hatred in this country right now. And it is important that we have an honest conversation here and understand clearly what is being said on this program. No one is saying that eugenics are coming. The builder of the master race was only part of the problem in Germany, made possible after they began to devalue life. They tried to figure out how much is a life worth, and put a price on how much each individual was worth -- and some were worth more than others.

I want to show you a poster that I saw this morning getting ready for the show. I want you to know that I have a daughter that was born with cerebral palsy, and they said that when she was born, that she would never walk or talk or feed herself. She went to college. They were wrong.

This poster bothers me so much because the hand of the person shown in this poster reminds me of my -- reminds me of my daughter's hand. This is from Nazi Germany. It says in German, if you can get a tight shot here, it says in German, basically, it's going to cost 60 thousand marks to keep this man alive. As you see, he's sitting here with a gnarled hand. He's a sweet guy and everything, the poster says, but his quality of life is a shame, but your time is up.

And there is this poster. This is also from Germany in World War II. This one shows an institution here and all of the houses that could be built with the money if we could just eliminate this institution.

Now, here is what the president of the United States has told us today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The rumor that's been circulating a lot lately is this idea that somehow the House of Representatives voted for "death panels" that will basically pull the plug on grandma because we've decided that we don't -- it's too expensive to let her live anymore. The intention of the members of Congress was to give people more information so that they could handle issues of end-of-life care when they're ready on their own terms. It wasn't forcing anybody to do anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I don't believe that this is a matter that is appropriate for laughter or jokes. I want you to clearly understand that I don't think he wants to kill your grandmother or unplug your grandmother. It would be a truly an evil person that would do that.

However, what happened in Germany was that they couldn't afford health care for all. You see, they had devalued their mark, our dollar -- they had devalued it so much because the government just started to print money. Does that sound familiar? It has only been done a few times in the world's history, and it has never ended up any other different way than it did in the Weimar Republic. That forced Germany into an economic collapse.

America, I ask you to take a good long hard look at what's going on today. You must ask with boldness, could our economy, the way we are currently spending and printing at will possibly go into some sort of "emergency situation"? Could it collapse? Is it possible? Is it possible that our debt is so high that we can't pay it back or we have to make tough decisions and possibly ration health care?

The answer everyone will tell you is yes.

So, then is it crazy, is it ridiculous to say, "All right, if we have a crisis in our monetary system, what will our government and our president do?"

To figure that out, what he is going to think or what he thinks currently, we need to listen to his words on how to decide what his policies -- he told us this in the campaign, so we're only following his directions. Listen carefully, and figure out how to decide what his policies are going to be, and what they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Let me tell you who I associate with. On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed chairman, Paul Volcker. If I'm interested in figuring out my foreign policy, I associate myself with my running mate, Joe Biden, or with Dick Lugar, the Republican ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or General Jim Jones, the former supreme allied commander of NATO. Those are the people, Democrats and Republicans, who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: America, this program is under a great amount of pressure to not bring you this news. I would ask that you listen carefully.

We will do exactly what Obama himself has told us to do. We have to find out about his advisors. Who is shaping his opinion? Who is surrounding him? We know it's not based in eugenics, but what is it?

You see, your voice isn't going to be represented in the "war room" in a crisis situation. And right now, that's all anybody is talking about, in his advisory room (ph) or here on this floor in the studio. We're only talking about, if there is a crisis, what will they do? Whose voice will the president hear?

Well, there's Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. He is a health advisor. He said this in January of this year, quote, "When implemented, the complete lives system produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated."

The science czar, John Holdren says, quote, "The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essentially -- given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth will ultimately develop into a human being." He also, this czar, wrote about putting sterilants in drinking water for population control.

One of the leaders in this type of thought is a friend of the regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein. Cass Sunstein, the regulatory czar, is the guy who will take the big bill and make the regulations to point us in the right direction. One of his good friends is prominent Princeton professor, Peter Singer. In July 2009, this last July, in "The New York Times," Peter Singer wrote, "Why We Must Ration Health Care." He wants to do it now. In that, he talked about the number of lives wet could save, saving the life of one teenager is equivalent to saving the lives of how many 85-year-olds. His answer is 14.

You also have -- you have Rahm Emanuel brother Ezekiel saying this in November 1996, "Conversely, services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic and should not be guaranteed."

That leads me to Sarah Palin's statement this week on Facebook. She said this, "Who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, the disabled, of course. The America I know does not love one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's `death panel,' so bureaucrats can decide, based on subjective judgment of their level of productivity in society, whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

Is it truly crazy to have these conversations? This is the stuff that they're now saying out loud. What are they saying to the president behind closed doors when we aren't there to watch it? I guess we won't know, because we'll all be too focused on that emergency that would start the rationing, and the czars don't have to answer to anyone.

Before I introduce you to my panel, I want to show you one more thing. This is a poster from Germany. See if this rings a bell to anyone or looks familiar just in a different kind of media. This is something that translates here at the bottom to the complainer.

Can you zoom in on this one?

There's the complainer. These are four men. Notice how ugly they are. How some of them look rich or fat or whatever, maybe Jewish, maybe this one, I don't know.

They're all the complainers. They're all standing around in a circle, and they're talking about -- they're all standing around in a circle talking about how horrible things are, and how we shouldn't do this. The parade, back here, are the supporters.

This is a poster of what you see every day now in the news media making the complainers, the tea partygoers, look somehow rotten. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 08/11/09, accessed via Nexis]

Beck: "First They Came For The Sugary Beverages, And I Said Nothing." From The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: First they came for the sugary beverages and I said nothing. A report now out of Boston.

REPORTER: We all know there's been talk in the state of a soda tax, but this almost seems to go one step further. According to the Globe, city officials are considering banning or limiting the sale of soda or other sugary drinks in all city buildings. Now this doesn't mean that you couldn't bring a Coke from home or buy a Pepsi from the corner store across the street, but they would limit or eliminate the vending machines that sell soda and regulate snack bars inside city-owned properties. It's all in an effort to improve the health of city employees and possibly save on insurance costs if those employees are healthier. That's because studies have shown a link between soft drinks, sugary juices, sports drinks, and gaining weight.

PAT GRAY : And like New York that follows on the heels of the trans fat ban and the cigarette ban, of course. And here in New York the salt ban, which they're also trying to get done.

BECK: I like the reporter where she said this -

BECK & GRAY: "Almost seems -"

BECK: "to go a step further" than a tax. Almost? Eliminating it. "Almost goes a step further." This is nudge. First they came for the sugary drinks, and I said nothing. Next, they came for my pail and shovel at the beach.

REPORTER: I come out here to the national park to show you just what exactly is in the sand lower than six inches. We wanted to use the shovel and give you a look, but apparently that's illegal.

BP has machines ready to go that can dig down to 18 inches. A quick look at the manual operation and you can clearly see there's oil well below that six-inch limit. But, that's about all we can show you. In the midst of doing this story, this happened.

VOICE: You don't have a permit to do this.

REPORTER: A man, claiming to be with the Fish and Wildlife Service, stopped us to say, it's illegal to dig in the sand.

REPORTER (ON TAPE): I can't build a sandcastle?

VOICE: Are you digging, what are you digging for sir?

REPORTER: I'm digging in the sand to see if [unintelligible] is there.

VOICE: Are you digging for oil product?

REPORTER: Not necessarily, I just want to see what's there.

VOICE: OK , I'll tell you what: If you're not going to cooperate with me I'll get a National Park Service refuge officer out here. I'll get a law enforcement guy out here to talk to you

REPORTER: He said it would be okay if we just moved down the beach, so we did. But about the time I put the shovel in the sand, this happened.

REPORTER: He said that it's illegal to film in a national park unless I could prove I'm with the media. After showing him my press pass, he then told me what I was and was not allowed to do.

REPORTER: He said we had to leave so we left. He said come to a public beach, which is right here, right?

PARK SERVICE OFFICER: Yeah, but you can't dig.

REPORTER: I can't dig?

PARK SERVICE OFFICER: No you can't.

REPORTER: Okay. Why's that?

PARK SERVICE OFFICER: You can't dig in a national park.

REPORTER: So no sand castles, none of that, huh?

PARK SERVICE OFFICER: No.

REPORTER: Apparently the national park service will only allow BP workers to dig and only down to six inches.

BECK: Now you may say" what difference does it make on the sugary drinks? What difference - what? Big deal, so I can't dig." Did. You. Pass. This. Law? Were you consulted on this? This is not the government's land. This is your land. These are your inalienable rights, and as ridiculous as it may sound, I have a right to drink a sugary soda if I wanted. I have a right to go and take my kids and dig in the sand. Since when did that change?

This is not about -- again, this is not about these rights. This is about what other rights? [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 9/21/10]

Beck: "Who's Next On The List?" "The Jew Is On The List. But Not Before The Rich. Not Before The Tea Party." From The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: One of the things that I was gonna share on 9/12 was this, but I think you need to hear it now. If I asked you, how does the Niemöller poem start, about "first they came for the Jew," how does it start? Sarah, I've asked the guys here so they know, do you know, do you know -- how does that start? Any idea?

SARAH SULLIVAN (Phone Screener): I don't - I don't know.

BECK: Okay. Most people would say "first they came for the Jews, but I wasn't a Jew, and so I didn't say anything." Right? It doesn't. Here's the poem: "they came for the communists, and I didn't object, for I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the socialists, and I didn't object, for I wasn't a socialist. Then they came for the labor leaders, and I didn't object, because I wasn't a labor leader. They came for the Jews, and I didn't object for I wasn't a Jew. And then they came for me, and there was no one left to object."

The Jew is the last one before you. First they came for the communists. Well the communists were the ones that they were trying to fold in. They were trying to get them in. "Come in to the National Socialist Party." But the Communists were global in nature. The National Socialists were just that. National. Socialist. Germany first. The Third Reich. Same policies, different leadership, global view not local view.

First they tried to convince the communists, "come in, come in, come in, come in." When they couldn't, when they got 'em in then they came for the communists. And they went, "this is history." They went after the communists. "Round them up! Silence them!" But then they came for the socialists, the socialists that didn't agree - remember, National Socialist Party. But if you were a socialist and said, "I'm not a National Socialist, no I'm not a Nazi," you weren't good enough, either.

So, the socialists help the National Socialists round up the communists. But then they purified again, and said well you're not socialist enough, you have to be National Socialists. And then, the labor unions, which they had used to organize - well then, you can't have the labor union because the labor union can't be separate from the state. So they rounded up all the labor union's leaders. Then there was no one left to stop them.

May I change this poem a little bit, and see if it makes any sense at all?

Who are they coming for now? Who are they trying to silence? You fill in the blanks. First they smear, then they target, then they actually start to target. Who are they trying to silence now? And who have they brought in? They've co-opted everybody they can possibly co-opt. Those who will not be co-opt will be silenced. They're doing the same thing. They will silence, and if you won't be silence, well then they'll - well what was it, what was it, it was the Reichstag fire, that's right. There was trouble on the streets. Somebody set fire to the Reichstag, their Pentagon. Somebody set fire to it. Speculation is, we don't know because everything has been erased in history. Speculation is it was the Nazis that did it. But they blamed it on the communists. Gee, who are they setting up for violence here?

If there's any kind of violent activity, who do you think's going to get the blame here? Would it be the same people that "first they came for" and I wasn't so I didn't speak up? Who's next on the list? Who's after that? I can tell you this: The Jew is on the list. But not before the rich. Not before the Tea Party, not before people who believe in the founding documents. Not before the business owner. And you've got a while buttload of willing people to do it. Because it's the rich, you just heard [unintelligible], it's the rich! It's the business owner that's caused all of this. They had it coming to 'em. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Glenn Beck Program, 10/10/11]

Beck: "First They Came After My Cigarettes" And "I Said Nothing," "But Then They Came After My Ice Cream." From Glenn Beck:

BECK: My gut likes ice cream. Ice cream is really my bellwether. When ice cream goes, I go. I have little or no self-control when it comes to ice cream. This is the size of my actual bowl that I eat it in. And the spoon is a little too big 'cause then it goes too fast. But, that's a different story. My life pretty much centers around ice cream -- by the way you never put these in the bowl of ice cream. You eat these as a little warm-up.

Anyway. two weeks ago I go on vacation, and I couldn't get - I couldn't get the ice cream that I actually buy here in New York City 'cause that would be, oh I don't know, too convenient. But, two weeks ago before I go on vacation, the ice cream was $2.19, two weeks ago. $2.19. I come back from vacation because I was doing science, the same ice cream, $2.19, is now $3.55. May I just say, first they came after my cigarettes, but I didn't smoke so I said nothing. Then they came after my trans fats, but I didn't know what the hell that was so I said nothing, but then they came after my ice cream. Damn the torpedoes. I rise up for this. But I read in the paper that there's no problem. There's confidence in the recovery. Yeah, yeah. There's confidence, everything's great, keep eatin'. Really. Wait a minute, I can't ,because it's now $3.55. I don't know what you're a-ha moment will be, mine's at the gas pump - mine's at the ice cream store. Yours might be at the gas pump. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 1/6/11]

BECK: The second thing, the progressives, that are important to them - I mean, if we had them on truth serum. Democratic elections, yeah. Yeah, again, they'll give you the choices. Like, for instance, the progressives around the turn of the century gave you Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, both progressives. Both believed in big government and power and control. It's - we've had this choice over and over again. It's why you keep voting and saying, "Well, it seems like we get the same thing." Right? But democratic elections mean something else 'cause we're not a democracy, we're a republic. Democratic elections, you'll hear this when they talk about the "democratically elected leader of Iran." The "democratic leader, Chavez." Democratically elected, you know. Castro, democratically elected. Hitler, democratically elected. Its code language. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 04/28/10]

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On December 7, President-elect Donald Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Media should take note of Pruitt’s climate science denial, his deep ties to the energy industries he will be charged with regulating, and his long record of opposition to EPA efforts to reduce air and water pollution and combat climate change.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked -- or considered -- nearly a dozen people who have worked in right-wing media, including talk radio, right-wing news sites, Fox News, and conservative newspapers, to fill his administration. And Trump himself made weekly guest appearances on Fox for a number of years while his vice president used to host a conservative talk radio show.